Journalist and humorist C. Douglass Welch was born in Boston in 1906
and grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where his father was managing editor of the
Tacoma News-Tribune. Welch's first job in
journalism was as a cub reporter for the
News-Tribune in the summers while he was
in high school. He attended the University of Washington and briefly worked for
the
Cleveland Plain Dealer upon graduating in
1928, but soon returned to Seattle where he worked as a reporter and feature
writer first for the
Seattle Times and later for the
Post-Intelligencer. His column
The Squirrel Cage, syndicated by King
Features, ran in the
Post-Intelligencer and many other
newspapers from 1958 until his death in 1968. Two collections of these columns,
The Squirrel Cage and
Neighbors and Other People, edited by his
wife, Ruth Hecht Welch, were published in the 1970s. Welch was twice the
recipient of the Hearst Newspapers Award for humorous news reporting.

In addition to his newspaper journalism, Welch wrote a large number of
comic stories and pieces which were published in
The Saturday Evening Post,
Equire and other magazines. Stories
featuring the character of newspaper photographer "Happy" Digby were
subsequently collected in a book,
Mr. Digby Stories, and many of Welch's
short pieces were adapted for radio and television. One of Welch's short plays,
Let's Move the Furniture, was published in
an acting edition in 1928. From 1955-1957, Welch worked with the writer Nard
Jones on a biography of Teamsters leader Dave Beck; in 1957 Welch was
questioned about the book by Robert Kennedy in connection with a senate
committee investigating racketeering. Douglas Welch died in 1968.

The Douglass Welch papers consist primarily of correspondence and of
typescripts and carbon copies of his
" Squirrel Cage" columns and his other
journalistic pieces and short stories. There are also materials relating to a
never-published biography of Teamsters leader Dave Beck which was co-written by
Douglass Welch and Nard Jones. Some scrapbooks, notes, ephemera, clippings, and
publications containing Welch's pieces are also present, as well as a small
series containing papers of Welch's mother, Marie Douglass Welch.

Restrictions on Use

Literary rights for business letters of Douglass Welch transferred to
the University of Washington Libraries. Literary rights in other published and
unpublished writings including personal letters from Douglass Welch to Ruth
Welch (then Ruth Hecht) retained by Ruth Welch or her heirs.

Preferred Citation

Douglass Welch papers, Special Collections Divison, University of
Washington Libraries.

Arrangement

Acquisition Information

The Welch papers were donated by C. Douglass Welch in 1967 and Ruth
Welch in 1981 and 1982.

Processing Note

Accession numbers 0779, 0779-2 and 0779-3 were
merged and processed by Janet Polata; processing was completed in 2007.

Separated Materials

Several publications were relocated to the Pacific Northwest
Collections in Special Collections Division in 2007.

About twenty-five genealogical publications (books and periodicals)
originally belonging to Welch's mother were removed from the accession and
donated to the Seattle Genealogical Society and the History, Travel and Maps
Department of the Seattle Public Library's Central Library; two were sent to
the University of Washington Libraries' Gifts Program.

Most of the correspondence is from Carl Brandt, Carol Brandt or
Alma Levin (later Alma Pritchard), all of Welch's literary agency, Brandt &
Brandt, and primarily concerns the acceptance or rejection of Welch's work by
various publications, and, later, possible sales of film and television rights
to his published stories. Some of this later correspondence is also from Alma
Pritchard, who left Brandt & Brandt upon her marriage and moved to
California where she worked in film and continued to support and advocate for
Welch's work; she ultimately returned to New York and to Brandt & Brandt.
Folder 1/29 also contains a snapshot of Alma Pritchard.

1932-1966, undated

1/40-45

General correspondence; Brandt & Brandt
files

Correspondence between Welch and his agency from the files of
Brandt & Brandt.

1949-1956

Writings

circa 1958-1968, undated

Box/Folder

1/46

" Bank"

undated

1/47-48

Mr. Digby Stories

Includes the stories published in
Mr. Digby Stories as well as
others featuring "Happy" Digby.

undated

" The Squirrel Cage"

Not in chronological order except some of the columns from
1968, the year of Welch's death, which had been kept separately and are now in
folder 1/49.

Box/Folder

1/49-54, 2/1-38,
3/1-12

Typescripts and carbon copies of daily
columns

circa 1958-1968

3/13-21

Typescripts and carbon copies of Sunday
columns

undated

Collections

undated

Box/Folder

3/22-29

Typescripts of columns used by Ruth Welch in
assembling
The Squirrel Cage and
Neighbors and Other People

undated

3/30-32

Typescript of
The Squirrel Cage

undated

4/1

Typescript of
Neighbors and Other People

Box/Folder

4/2

Plays; typescripts and carbons

1928, undated

A Cow in the Parlor, a play in
one act

undated

Three Plays

O'Dea of the "Times",
Let's Move the Furniture, and
Woman's Place Is in the Home

undated

You Wouldn't Believe It!

undated

Woman's Place Is in the Home!,
a farce in one act

1928 February

Let's Move the Furniture, a
farce in one act

undated

Stories and articles; typescripts and carbon
copies

undated

Box/Folder

4/3

" The Extremely Sad Case of Elmer Throckbottle, The Last Minute Christmas Shopper"

4/3

" The Hand That Cradles The Rock"

4/3

" Here, Kitty, Kitty"

4/3

" Lost"

4/3

" Research"

4/3

" Complaint"

4/3

" Madame Chairman, Ahem"

4/3

" Enemy"

4/3

" Night Patrol"

4/3

" There Ought to be a Lure"

4/3

" Free Lancer"

4/3

" Inside Job"

Two versions.

4/3

" Calliope"

4/3

" Brothers Under My Skin"

4/3

" Merry Christmas, Father"

One complete and one partial draft.

4/3

" Suet and Low"

4/3

" Treason, No Less"

4/4

" Adventures Into History"

4/4

" Charlie"

4/4

" Study in Red"

4/4

" Cinderella Lays an Egg"

4/4

" Photo Finish"

4/4

" The Old Man in the Shoe"

4/4

" Something He Ate"

4/5

" Quick, the China Cement!"

4/5

" Wassail"

4/5

" Blessed Insomnia"

4/5

" June Bridegroom"

4/5

" Freedom of Press"

4/5

" Protest"

4/5

" Pretty Is as Pretty Does"

4/5

" Coronation Scene"

4/5

" April Fool"

4/5

" After Baby Comes"

4/5

" The Muse, Ground Floor"

4/5

" Home-Coming"

4/5

" Six of a Kind"

4/5

" Kiss Me Again (and Again and Again)"

4/5

" Hey! Hey! Hotcha!"

4/5

" Personal Contact"

4/5

" Fun in the Kitchen"

4/5

" They Seen Their Duty"

4/5

" Report to Washington"

4/5

" The Boiled Onion Racket"

4/5

" Anchors Aweigh"

4/5

" Looking Sideways"

4/6

" Tidings"

4/6

" Table d'Hote"

4/6

" Whither, America?"

4/6

" A Very Attractive Babe"

4/6

" Goldylocks and the Big Bear"

4/6

Three versions of the story published as
" Pop Pops Off"

Box/Folder

4/6

" No Trains Today"

4/6

" Pop Holmes Resents"

4/6

" The Deep-Resenting Mr. Holmes"

4/6

" Sea Serpents Amuck"

4/6

" Are Sea-Serpents Slipping?"

4/6

" Woodpeckers"

Partial typescript and handwritten notes

4/6

" Everything Under Control"

4/6

" Music Hath Charm"

4/6

" Cuisine Moderne"

4/6

" Critical Case"

4/6

" So They Want to Know?"

4/7

" Next Show Right Away"

4/7

" The 1935 Bathing Suit Situation"

4/7

" Service"

4/7

" The Kiddies' Christmas"

4/7

" It Can't Happen Here"

4/7

" Trouper"

4/7

" Big Stuff"

4/7

" The Hangover: Its Cause and Cure"

4/7

" Fallen Woman"

Three versions plus marked copy in Brandt & Brandt cover
sheets.

4/7

" Ship's Cruise"

Two versions.

4/7

" Age of Invention"

4/7

" Herman"

4/7

" Scientific Picnicking"

4/7

" Prospectus"

4/7

" The Cook's Daughter"

4/7

" Term Examination"

4/7

" Recruit"

4/7

" Hyacinth"

4/8

" Miss Mickey Finn"

4/8

" If We Really Had Justice"

4/8

" Something He Ate"

4/8

" Hell Week"

4/8

" False Alarm"

4/8

" Let's Look at the Record"

4/8

" Mrs. Union Station"

4/8

" What Will They Think of Next?"

4/8

" Staff Meeting"

4/8

" Mr. Galbraith Goes to the Post Office"

4/8

" Build-Up"

4/8

" Travelers' Aid, China Division"

4/8

" Your English"

4/8

" Monday Morning Quarterback"

4/9

" Plots to Please"

4/9

" To Whom It May Concern"

Two versions.

4/9

" Back Seat Driver"

4/9

" Collector"

4/9

" Difficult Witness"

4/9

" Untouchable"

4/9

" Horse of Another Color"

4/9

" Are You Listening?"

4/9

" Lines"

4/9

" Tempest"

4/9

" Fleet"

4/9

" Definitely, Virginia"

4/9

" The Education of Mr. Galbraith"

4/9

" Haven"

4/9

" Incident of the Assessor"

4/9

" Chin Lee Goes Back to China"

4/9

" June Brides"

4/9

" Professor, You've Got Something!"

4/9

" Gypsy"

4/9

" Rah! Rah! Rah! Team!"

4/9

" Non-Conformist"

4/9

" The Barbary Coast"

Two versions.

4/9

" Who Said So?"

4/9

" Incident of the Waste Basket"

4/9

" Bedtime Story, 1938 Style"

4/9

" Art"

4/9

" Smart Girls Don't Know the Score"

4/9

" Brothers of the Skillet"

4/9

" Christmas Carol"

Two versions.

4/9

" The Enemy Halted"

4/9

" Rustic Interlude"

4/9

" There's a Reporter to See You!"

4/10

" The Ape-Men of Sugar Peak"

4/10

" Strictly Educational"

4/10

" Carnegie: A Menace"

4/10

" Painless Pinch"

Two versions.

4/10

" Post-Mortem"

4/10

" Public Enemy"

4/10

" Turn About"

4/10

" Catechism"

4/10

" Murder Will Conservatively Out!"

4/10

" Millenium"

4/10

" Farmer Goes to Market"

4/10

" 'Where Was You Thursday Night?'"

4/10

" The Deep-Resenting Mr. Holmes"

4/10

" The Fathers Suffer So"

Two versions.

4/10

" It's A System"

4/10

" New Era"

4/11

" Horse of Two Colors"

4/11

" Portrait of a Spy"

4/11

" Ladies on the Hill"

4/11

" The Girl Who Flunked"

4/11

" Editorial Renegade"

4/11

" Run For Your Lives"

Two versions.

4/11

" It's a Long Lane"

4/11

" Good Neighbor Policy"

4/11

" House Dick"

4/11

" Grade B Bloodhound"

4/11

" Who Said A Thousand Years?"

4/11

" It Won't Work"

4/11

" The Gangster, Who Won't Talk, Comes Back From His Vacation"

4/11

" Minute Mysteries"

4/11

" Acid Test"

4/11

" Skull-Practice"

4/11

" Ordeal"

4/11

" Moocher"

4/11

" Without Asterisks"

4/11

" Will It Come To This?"

4/12

" Mother of Invention"

4/12

" Camera Shy"

4/12

" Dieting Is A Science"

4/12

" Please Don't Disturb"

4/12

" Dinner Is Ready"

4/12

" We've Been Betrayed"

4/12

Untitled

Comic article in the form of a letter to the Pulitzer Prize
Play Committee

4/12

" No Sex!"

4/12

" Epicure"

4/12

" Sauce for the Gander"

4/12

" 'Better Dress4/12'"

4/12

" Dictator"

4/12

" Committee on Foods"

4/12

" Traveler's Aid"

4/12

" The 'F D F W A S'"

4/12

" I Spy"

4/12

" Philip Sneed and the Loud Suit"

4/12

" I Was A Spy!"

4/12

" Too Much Neck"

4/12

" King Cole"

4/13

" Problem Child"

4/13

" Sweet-Talk Me, Jackson!"

Two versions.

4/13

" The Man From Queer Street"

4/13

" The Awakening of Herman Sprunt"

4/14

" Ryther"

4/14

Untitled (for
Yankee Magazine)

4/14

" Washington Welcome"

4/14

" Beer"

4/14

" Life in a Goldfish Bowl"

4/14

" Girls Aren't People"

4/15

" An Open Letter to Mr. Goldenson"

4/15

Trains Special

4/15

" Where's The Action?"

4/15

" Who Needs Laughs?"

4/15

" Astrological Outlook for 1933"

4/15

" A Man of Letters"

4/15

" Business Crisis"

4/15

" Abductus Ad Absurdum"

4/15

" 'Calling All Cars'"

4/15

" Ground-Hog Day"

4/15

" The New Peal"

4/15

" Quizz [sic]"

4/15

" Time Marches On!"

4/15

" America, Awake!"

4/15

" Shorts"

4/15

" The Santa Claus Situation"

4/15

" Municipal Reports"

4/15

" Bird in Hand"

4/15

" Picture Ahead!"

4/15

" Punchinello in Politics"

Box/Folder

4/16

Printed pamphlets

Box/Folder

4/16

Any Way You Look at It

Promotional pamphlet containing Welch's impressions of a
tour of the Heidelberg Brewery in Tacoma, Washington.

1953

4/16

A Good Day to You All

Promotional pamphlet for the Mellon Bank; contains excerpts
from
The Squirrel Cage column.

1964?

Subject file; Dave Beck biography

1955-1957, undated

Box/Folder

4/17-18

General Correspondence

1955-1957

4/19

Notes

undated

4/20

Ephemera

1955

4/21

Clippings

1957, undated

Notes

Box/Folder

4/22

Notes regarding Seattle Park Board

Photocopies of notecards kept by the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer of
items published relating to the Park Service and Park Board, including items
reported by Welch.

1954-1965

4/23

Miscellaneous notes

Includes notebooks recording writings and payments, and a
notebook listing the recurring characters from
The Squirrel Cage with their
primary characteristics.

circa 1932-1941, circa 1958-1968

Box/Folder

4/24

Agreements

1940-1944

Scrapbooks

The scrapbooks contain clippings of Welch's work that appeared
in various magazines and newspapers.